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In August of 1974, Culver City California resident Doris Bither enlisted the help of UCLA parapsychologists Dr. Barry Taft and Kerry Gaynor after hearing them speak at a local bookstore. Her claims were outlandish, and the two men assumed the case would be an easy one.

Bither lived in the home on Braddock Drive with her four children: a six-year-old daughter and three sons, ages ten, thirteen, and sixteen. Taff and Gaynor immediately noticed the poor state of the house. It was dirty and had been condemned more than once. Doris’s relationship were her children, specifically her boys, was extremely negative, and some claimed she was verbally abusive.

Doris’s background is most interesting to me: her parents were abusive, as were the men she dated. Like many victims of abuse, she struggled with positive relationships, and the investigators felt the boys, particularly the oldest, resented their mother. Paranormal enthusiasts–including respected experts like Taff–often point out that a negative environment and tormented mind either attract poltergeist activity or create it.

Taff and Gaynor were skeptical of Doris’s claims, which started with the more benign stories of disembodied voices and knocking sounds to the seemingly outlandish tale of rape. Initially, the two men scoffed at her story of physical attack, but when they saw the bruising on her body, specifically her inner thighs, and non-family members came forth with their experiences of the apparitions, they started to listen.

Doris claimed there were at least three spirits, and that two smaller ones held her down while the biggest raped her. Bizarre as it sounds, her eldest son did say he witnessed his mother being tossed around the room and was attacked by the force when he tried to intervene.

Taff and Gaynor then embarked on one of the most famous paranormal investigations in history. After initial sessions that resulted in strange pictures and lights, Gaynor and Taff brought in professional photographers. Using high-speed cameras (keep in mind, this is 1974), they set up in Doris’s bedroom and had her call the alleged spirits. More than two dozen investigators watched as strange lights began to manifest and a green mist formed in the corner. Like a neon vortex, it twisted and grew, and suddenly the form of a male torso became visible.

Frank de Felitta, author of “The Entity,” and “Audrey Rose,” witnessed the form along with many others. He described an arm, then a neck, and then a “kind-of” bald head. He states the witnesses saw the same thing. You can hear his description in the video below.

Despite the high-speed cameras and professional photographers, the lights were too quick and no visual evidence was found. Only a floating, arc-like light and some orbs showed up in the pictures.

In the video below, Kerry Gaynor explains the importance of this picture. The walls are perpendicular, and if the light were really on the wall, meaning it were being projected, the arc would be bent. It’s not, and according to Gaynor, that means the arc is floating in space. It’s dimensional and nearly impossible to fake. The negative of the photo has been authenticated and published by Popular Photography.

In the video, Gaynor also shows the famous Polaroids he snapped when Doris claimed the entity was in front of her face–it’s bleached out. But in the control pictures he took, when she said nothing was there, the picture is fine.

So what happened? Doris was an alcoholic with a nasty attitude. Her children were born to different fathers and she went on to have numerous relationships and marriages before she died in 1995. If some theorists are to be believed, her negative energy played a part in conjuring up whatever was attacking her. It is interesting that the activities were at their height in Doris’s presence. According to investigators, there were instances when she was sober and no manifestations occurred.

After Doris moved out of the Culver City home, the activity ceased and no further activity has been reported. However she told Taff that as she moved from San Bernardino, California, then to Texas, and back to San Bernardino, the entity followed.

What do you think? Was Doris really haunted? If she was, did her negative emotions conjure up the cruelty? What about the evidence? Does it stack up for you?

More than a hundred years ago, consumption was a dreaded term. The diagnosis was nearly as disheartening as hearing “you’ve got cancer” today. Fatigue was often the first sign, followed by weight loss, fever, lack of appetite, and the persistent and eventually bloody cough.

Tuberculosis wasn’t entirely understood at the turn-of-century. It was romanticized at times because the victim didn’t die in a splatter of blood and glory, but rather faded away.

Although easily curable today, Tuberculosis ran rampant throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Doctors often prescribed fresh, dry air (this is why Doc Holliday headed West) to help the lungs grow stronger. In 1910, a small, tw0-story Tuberculosis hospital opened in Louisville Kentucky. It quickly became overrun with sick patients and expanded to a mammoth facility in 1924. Considered one of the most modern in the world, the new structure was able to house more than 400 patients.

In a building where unimaginable suffering occurred for decades, it’s no wonder the paranormal activity is intense.

In addition to the fresh air treatment (patients were subjected to this even in the winter. TB sufferers are said to be the reason heating blankets were invented), numerous experimental procedures were introduced. Pneumothorax (surgically collapsing a portion of the lung so it heals) and thoracoplasty (opening up the chest and removing up to 3 ribs at a time so the lung would have more room to expand and heal) were two of the most popular. Fewer than five percent survived the pneumothorax attempts. Patients were also exposed to ultraviolet light in an effort to stop the spread of bacteria.

Historians believe between 40,000 and 60,000 people died in Waverly Hills Sanitarium—some from the disease and many others from experimental procedures.

So many perished at Waverly that a tunnel was dug from the lower level of the hospital out out to a field away from the main section of the hospital. Kept out of sight from the living patients, the “body chute” was a sad and busy place. Some accounts claim more than forty bodies per day were sent down the chute during the highpoint of the TB siege. A motorized wench system guided the bodies down the tunnel while hearses lined up at the end and staff wheeled the dead away.

There’s no electricity in the body chute. Imagine pitch darkness with only flashlights to guide you, much like the Las Vegas Tunnels featured in Into The Dark. The chute is reported to be on of the most haunted areas of the Sanitorium. Voices have been captured on tape (EVPS), as well as unexplainable mists, cold spots, and apparitions.

This video is long, but it’s a visitor’s experience in the spooky body chute at Waverly Hills.

The body chute is far from being the only haunted spot at Waverly.

A man in a white coat has been seen walking in the kitchen, and the smell of cooking often wafts through the room. These instances occurred long before any renovations took place, when the kitchen was in ruins: broken windows, fallen plaster, puddles of water, and debris from the leaking roof.

The third floor is known to be incredibly active. A ball is often heard and sometimes seen bouncing down the hall or stairs. Ghosts of both a little girl (with no eyes) and a little boy have been seen. The boy’s ghost has been nicknamed Timmy, and many visitors have had encounters with him.

In this video, ball is thrown at paranormal investigators during a live investigation in September, 28. The ball appears at about a minute into the video. There are numerous videos of investigators encountering the ball on You Tube.

The fifth floor of the hospital is a magnet for ghost hunters. It’s believed that mentally insane TB patients were housed on the fifth floor, far away from others but still able to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. Patients were isolated on either side of the nurse’s station.

Room 502 rivals the body chute for most haunted area of the Sanitorium. Legend says that in 1928, a nurse was found hanging from the light fixture. Many believed she’d committed suicide because she was unmarried and pregnant.

A second (alleged) suicide of another nurse occurred in 1932. She jumped from the balcony for unknown reasons.

Apparitions of a female nurse in white have been seen by numerous visitors, and disembodied voices have been caught on tape.

Waverly’s fourth flour is known for its shadow people—unexplainable moving objects with an eerie human like quality. Most skeptics have ruled out the headlight theory, as the Sanitorium sits on top of a hill.

At about :10 into this video, Jay and Grant from TAPS encounter the shadows with their thermal camera.

People have reported seeing lights on in the building at night although there was no electricity and no glass to reflect light. A guard claimed to have seen the flicker of a television from a room on the third floor. Children have been heard playing on the roof—the spot where they were taken for “heliotherapy” during their time at Waverly. A hearse has been spotted in the back of the building dropping off coffins, and a woman with bleeding wrists has been seen (and heard) crying for help. Slamming doors and loud footsteps in the empty building are a common occurrence.

Tuberculosis patients aren’t the only ones said to have suffered at Waverly Hills. Streptomycin was discovered in 1943, and the antibiotic began to rid the population of the disease. The hospital closed in 1961 but was reopened as the Woodhaven Geriatrics Sanitarium a year later. Electroshock therapy—believed to be effective during the time period—was widely used. Budget cuts in the led to filthy conditions and mistreatment, and Kentucky closed the facility in 1982 due to patient abuse.

Waverly Hills is among the most legendary places in the country, and the past decade has seen the landmark go through a large renovation. While still maintaining it’s creepy authenticity, the owners have perserved the building for ghost hunters and history buffs alike.

The Sanitorium is now owned by Charlie and Tina Mattingly. Tours are offered through their site. Waverly has long been at the top of my list to visit, but this is an experience not for the faint of heart.

Do you have the guts to go into the black body chute or play ball with Timmy on the third floor?